El 1-2-3 Kid

Mexicali is a nice place. They have heat. And tacos. And Christian Youth Rallies!

When I was younger, I went to Mexicali with my church for this weekend long Youth Rally. I had never been to Mexicali before that and I was excited to see another Mexican city other than Tijuana. The people who went included myself, a younger more ghettoer Pungu, a then recently retired band god Conrad, Edward Blanc and a few others who's names escape me at the moment. I knew that it would be fun but what I didn't know is that I would have an "experiencia religiosa".

I was ready to get rocked by J.C. that weekend. Little did I know that the rockin' process would be done by a religious phenomenon who would later be named "el 1-2-3 kid".

We got to the venue where the rally was taking place. It looked like a college basketball arena. It might have been a cock fighting arena but I wouldn't have known the difference.

The whole CA entourage of people from our church sat in the rafters and watched the following events unfold.

The band played. They were good.

The M.C. spoke. He was good.

Then the man of the hour came on stage. El 1-2-3 kid.

He came out and the first thing he did was apologize for the band not doing their job. He then told them to get off the stage, took a guitar and started singing with his wife. He was doing the job that he said the band didn't do....allegedly. He stopped in the middle of the song and into the mic said to his wife:

"Stop singing. If you aren't going to do it with all your heart just stop and leave"

She left.

After he finished rocking out he started his preaching.

In the middle he stopped and said the following:

"I am going to count to 3. If you love the Lord and want his Holy Spirit on the count of 3 you need to run up to the stage as fast as you can. Ready? 1............2.............3!"

The fanatics ran!

"Stop!" cried out El 1-2-3 Kid, "those of you who didn't make it here don't love God nor want his Holy Spirit in their lives!"

There was actually some people disappointed at themselves for not making it up to the front on time! It was wild!

He started to pray for people. In the middle of his prayer he said:

"There are some people in this place who are having sex. And even had sex before they came here. I want you people to stand up and come up here so I can pray for you. And there are some people in here are contemplating homosexuality. Come up here also!"

For some reason Pungu and Conrad looked at me to see if I was going to go up there. The bastards! I wasn't sure if they thought I was going to go up for the sex thing or the homosexuality thing.

He then started walking around the room and pointing people out! It was like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride minus the frog and the tourists!

It was the weirdest event I'd ever been to. And I wasn't the only one who felt that way. All of CA entourage felt that way. We stayed till the end and I am glad we did.

It was a CULT Classic